Evaluating Rural Farming Livelihood Outcomes from Sustainability Standard Certification Practices by Smallholder Tea Growers in Sri Lanka

Recent rapid transformations have shaped the development and use of voluntary sustainability standard initiatives that seek to address critical issues along global commodity supply chains. Smallholder farming communities that form an integral part of these supply chains have often been left exposed to increased livelihood insecurity. We explore how certification interventions of the Rainforest Alliance programme in Sri Lanka impact various classes of farming livelihood assets of smallholder tea growers and identify how these assets are combined and transformed to achieve their desired livelihood outcomes. A research framework was developed that integrates the ‘sustainable livelihoods' approach and the ‘theory of change’ to assess 36 indicators for the five capitals and the vulnerability context using mixed method techniques. We conducted household surveys to evaluate the asset levels for the indicators between 45 certified and 45 non-certified smallholders. In addition, we performed in-depth interviews with several extension specialists and held two focus group discussions with non-certified society leaders and their smallholder members. The findings of the Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that a total of 16 of 36 indicators were statistically significant, indicating increased levels in these assets for certified smallholders. Of the 15 livelihood outcomes evaluated, certified smallholders had seven ‘fully achieved’ outcomes after certification compared to four before certification. In contrast, non-certified smallholders had three ‘fully achieved’ outcomes, while nine were ‘not achieved’. Our findings support evidence that the certification programme has contributed to improving only some of the sustainable farming livelihood outcomes of the certified tea smallholder community.